Grammatical terminology recommended by the LAGB
for use in schools (version 6, June 2013)
Comments please to the author, Dick Hudson
abbreviation. An abbreviation is a shortened way of writing a word or group of words
(in contrast with contractions, which primarily affect pronunciation). For
example: Co. (Company), approx. (approximately), PR (public relations) Some
common abbreviations are of Latin terms (for example: e.g. (exempli gratia = for
example)). Names of organisations are often abbreviated using the initial letters
of each word (e.g. the NHS (National Health Service)). Some such abbreviations
(e.g. NATO, FIFA and UNESCO) have their own pronunciation and are called
‘acronyms’.
abstract noun and concrete noun. Nouns such as beauty, time, hour and grammar are
often classified as abstract in contrast with concrete nouns such as dog, tree,
stone and person. However, this is not a grammatical distinction, because it does
not affect the grammar of the words concerned. It is a matter of meaning, so the
same noun may sometimes have a concrete meaning, and at other times an
abstract one, without affecting its grammar; for instance, book may name either a
concrete object made of paper and cardboard (I picked up the book), or the
abstract information which may be contained in a large number of concrete
books (She’s writing a book.).
accusative. See case.
acronym. see abbreviation
active verb. Many verbs can be either active or passive (a contrast traditionally called
‘voice’). For example, bite:
The dog bit Ben. (active)
Ben was bitten by the dog. (passive)
In the active sentence, the subject (the dog) is the ‘agent’ (i.e. performs the
action) and the object (the ‘patient’) receives it. In the passive sentence, the
subject (Ben) is on the receiving end of the action. The two sentences give
similar information, but there is a difference in focus. The first is about what the
dog did; the second is about what happened to Ben.
Passives use the past participle, and usually follow be (It was repaired) or get
(It got broken), or even modifying a noun (the trees broken by the storm).
In English (but not in other languages such as French or German), the subject
of a passive often corresponds to the object of a preposition in the active:
The dog barked at Ben. (active)
Ben was barked at by the dog. (passive)
‘Prepositional passives’ are particularly common in casual styles.
A passive verb allows the agent to be identified using by: Ben was bitten by the
dog. But very often, in passive sentences, the agent is unknown or insignificant,
and therefore not identified: The computer has been repaired.
Passives without agent are common in formal styles. For example:
It was agreed that ... (compare We agreed that ...).
Application forms may be obtained from the address below.
adjective. E.g. big, extensive, vertical. Adjectives are sometimes called ‘describing
words’ because they pick out single characteristics such as size or colour. This is
a useful way to remember what adjectives are, but doesn't really help to
distinguish them from other word classes because verbs, nouns and adverbs
can do the same. Instead, it is better to identify adjectives by their range of
grammatical uses. A typical adjective can be used:
• either before a noun (e.g. big box), acting as the noun's modifier. This use is
called ‘attributive’.
• or after the verb be (e.g. is big), acting as the verb's subject complement.
Because subject complements are sometimes called ‘predicates’, this use is
called ‘predicative’.
Short adjectives such as big and short have comparative and superlative
forms:
bigger, biggest
short, shortest
adjective phrase. E.g. very nice, good enough to sell. An adjective phrase is a phrase
whose head is an adjective.
adverb. E.g. quickly, fortunately, soon, almost, very. Adverbs are often added to a
verb (hence their name) to provide more details about its meaning, especially its
manner, time, or place (e.g. He arrived quickly. He will leave soon).
Many adverbs are formed by adding -ly to an adjective (quick-ly, fortunate-ly but not friendli-ly or loneli-ly!) so these adverbs are easy to recognise, and help
to identify others which may replace them.
Verbs are not the only words to which adverbs may be added: They may also
modify the meaning of other word classes, including:
• adjectives (nearly impossible, extremely good; so ‘intensifiers’ are a type of
adverb),
• other adverbs (almost impossibly difficult).
In addition, there are cases where adverbs modify an entire clause or sentence
(Fortunately, she was unharmed), and occasionally even determiners, noun
phrases, or prepositional phrases (She ate almost all the cake, Tonight you can
see almost the whole moon, The rug reached almost to the wall).
adverb phrase. E.g. very carefully, so recently that I can still remember it. An adverb
phrase is a phrase whose head is an adverb.
adverbial. E.g. Recently, at home, this morning, when it rains. In Recently, I saw my
neighbour in his garden, both recently and in his garden are adverbials parts of the clause which modify the verb. The term shows the similarity of use
between the preposition phrase in the garden and the adverb recently. An
adverbial is typically an adverb (recently), but may instead be a preposition
phrase (in the garden), a noun or noun phrase (this morning) or a subordinate
clause (when I arrived). The term ‘adverbial’ is generally reserved for modifiers
of a verb, even though adverbs can be used to modify other kinds of word; so
unexpectedly is an adverbial in He arrived unexpectedly, but not in He did
unexpectedly well.
affirmative. A clause may be classified as either affirmative or negative; for
example, It is raining and Somebody called for you are affirmative, but can be
made negative by adding not or nobody: It is not raining and Nobody called for
you. The term positive is often used as a synonym of affirmative, and the
contrast is called polarity.
affix, affixation. An affix is a morpheme which cannot itself be an entire word, and
is always attached to a base. An affix can be
• a prefix, added before the base (intolerant, dislike)
• a suffix, added after the base (kindness, playing).
It may be used to signal either inflection (e.g. playing) or derivation (e.g.
player)
agent. The person or agent which carries out the action described by a verb is often
called the agent. The agent is the 'do-er' of the action. For instance, in John
caught the ball, John (the person, not the word) is the agent, and the ball is the
'patient'. This classification does not extend easily beyond 'action' verbs; for
instance, it is not helpful to describe John as the agent in John is ill or John
received a letter. See also: active and passive.
agree, agreement. In some cases the form of a verb changes according to its subject,
so the verb and subject are said to 'agree'. This happens with the verb be:
I am/he is/they are
I was/you were
and the third person singular (he/she/it) of the present tense:
I like/she likes
I don't/he doesn't
Note that singular collective nouns (eg team, family, government) can take a
singular or plural verb form. For example: The team (= it) is playing well. The
team (= they) are playing well.
There are also a few cases where a determiner must agree with a noun
according to whether it is singular or plural. For example:
this house these houses
much traffic many cars
Some languages have very rich and complex agreement systems; for example,
in German:
• der junge Mann wohnt hier. 'The young man lives here'
• die jungen Männer wohnen hier. 'The young men live here'.
ambiguous, ambiguity. A word or phrase which has more than one possible
interpretation is ambiguous. This sometimes arises from unclear grammatical
relationships. For example, in the headline: police shoot man with knife, it is not
specified whether the man had the knife or the police used the knife to shoot the
man. Both interpretations are possible, although only one is logical. Ambiguity
is often a source of humour.
anaphora, anaphoric. Anaphora is the 'referring back' relation between one word and
another, its antecedent. For example, in Bill hurt himself, the reflexive pronoun
himself refers back anaphorically to Bill because himself names the same person
as Bill; more generally, in any sentence of the form X hurt himself, himself and X
name the same person. Similarly, the personal pronoun she refers anaphorically
to Emily in I saw Emily yesterday. She told me that she had changed jobs. As
this example shows, anaphora may link words that are in different sentences. In
the examples given so far, the pronoun names the same individual as its
antecedent, but in some case the anaphora may involve a general category rather
than an individual; for example, the noun one means 'book' in I read one book
yesterday and a different one today. An anaphoric element is a word or phrase
that gets its meaning via anaphora.
antecedent. The antecedent of a relative pronoun is the noun that the relative clause
modifies; for example, in people who live in London, the antecedent of who is
people. More generally, any anaphoric element has an antecedent, the word or
phrase to which it is linked by anaphora. For example, in I asked Mary to help
me, but she wouldn't do it, the words she and it relate anaphorically to their
antecedents, Mary and help me.
antonyms, antonymy. Two words are antonyms if their meanings are opposites: hot –
cold; light – dark; light - heavy.
A word may have more than one word as an antonym: cold - hot/warm; big small/tiny/little
apostrophe. An apostrophe is a punctuation mark - a raised comma, as in John's used to indicate either omitted letters or possession:
 Omitted letters. We use an apostrophe for the omitted letter(s) when a verb
is contracted (= shortened). For example:
I'm (I am)
who's (who is/has)
they've (they have)
he'd (he had/would)
we're (we are)
it's (it is/has)
would've (would have)
she'll (she will)
In contracted negative forms, not is contracted to n't and joined to the verb: isn't,
didn't, couldn't etc.
In formal written style, it is more usual to use the full form.
There are a few other cases where an apostrophe is used to indicate letters that
are in some sense 'omitted' in words other than verbs, eg let's (= let us), o'clock
(= of the clock).
 Possession. We also use an apostrophe for the possessive form:
my mother's car
Joe and Fiona's house
the cat's tail
James's ambition
a week's holiday
my parents' car
the children's clothes
Note that the possessive pronouns yours, his, hers, ours, theirs, and its are not
written with an apostrophe.
apposition. When two words or phrases are in apposition to one another, they are
simply put next to each other ('apposed') so that they can each contribute in
different ways to the same meaning. For instance, in the sentence Her brother
John came in, her brother is in apposition to John because they both name the
same person.
article. A, an and the are articles. A (an before a vowel sound) is the indefinite article;
the is the definite article. Articles are a type of determiner.
aspect. The difference in meaning between I was playing football at five o'clock
('progressive') and I played football at five o'clock is sometimes called aspect
rather than tense because it concerns the way in which the event is described - as
ongoing or complete - rather than its position in time - before or after the present
moment. Similarly, the difference between a perfect form such as I have seen it
and its simple equivalent I see it or I saw it can be described as aspect because
the perfect locates the event in an ongoing period. These two aspect contrasts
combine freely with the contrast of tense to define eight distinct tense-aspect
forms. (See tense.)
Aspect plays a particularly important role in Slavonic languages such as
Russian, but these languages make rather different semantic distinctions from
English.
attributive. See adjective.
auxiliary verb. In They were talking, the verb were is called an 'auxiliary' verb
because it ‘supports’ the verb talking by helping to define its grammatical
characteristics such as tense, aspect and voice. This 'supporting' role explains
the term 'auxiliary' (think 'auxiliary nurse'), but this term is problematic for two
reasons.
 Not every verb that supports another verb in this way is called an auxiliary
verb. For example, get and keep can both be used before talking (as in They got
talking or They kept talking) but are not classified as auxiliary verbs because
they do not share the other special characteristics that distinguish auxiliary verbs
(see below). (See subject complement.)
 The term ‘auxiliary’ implies subordination, but from a grammatical point of
view, it is the following verb that is subordinate to the auxiliary verb, and not the
other way round. In a sequence such as were talking, it is the auxiliary verb that
is finite (past-tense were), whereas the second verb is not (participle talking),
and it is the auxiliary verb that determines the form of the next verb (because be
takes a participle), rather than the other way round. In most modern analyses,
therefore, the second verb is grammatically subordinate to the auxiliary.
Auxiliary verbs are a special class of verbs which can not only be used to
support another verb, but have other special grammatical characteristics. These
characteristics vary from language to language. In English, auxiliary verbs are
those that allow 'negation' and 'inversion':
 negation: modified by not or n't,as in They weren't talking (but not: *They
gotn't talking)
 inversion: placed before their subject, as in Were they talking? (but not: *Got
they talking?)
As you can see, were passes this test but got fails it. Similarly, had passes but
kept fails:
 negation: They hadn't talked. (but not: *They keptn't talking)
inversion: Had they talked? (but not: *Kept they talking?)
The English verbs that pass these tests are:
 be in all uses, even when followed by something other than a verb (as in:
They are happy)
 have when followed by a past participle (have talked) or (for some speakers
and some examples) when followed by an object (as in: I haven't a clue)
 do when followed by an infinitive (as in: I don't know) - but not before an
object (so not: *I didn't my homework)
 all modal verbs (as in: I can't help you, You mustn't do that.)
Auxiliary verbs can, and often do, combine with each other, as in I must have
been waiting for hours.
The tests define a clear word class, which needs a name. When this word class
combines with the 'supporting' function, grammarians all use the term 'auxiliary
verb'; but when be and have are used in other ways, as in They are happy or I
haven't a clue, many grammarians find the term misleading. However no other
name has established itself for such cases, so 'auxiliary verb' may be the best
option. If you do call non-supporting be and do auxiliary verbs, it is important to
remember that this term names a word class, not a function. (Contrast main
verb.)
backshift. When It’s Tuesday today is reported as You said it was Tuesday today, the
change of tense from present to past is called ‘backshift’. Notice how the past
was no longer has it’s usual deictic meaning, because It was Tuesday today
doesn’t make sense. Backshift is found in subordinate clauses that are
subordinate to a main clause whose verb is in the past tense.
base. A word’s base is the morpheme, or combination of morphemes, from which
the word was built by some change such as the addition of an affix. For instance,
in friendly and friends, the morpheme friend is the base, to which the affixes –ly
and –s have been added; and in blackbirds the base is blackbird which in turn
can be divided into two bases: black and bird. A word’s base is sometimes called
its ‘stem’, and in schools, bases are often called ‘root words’.
blend. A blend is a word derived from the start of one word and the end of another:
pictionary = picture + dictionary
smog = smoke + fog
brunch = breakfast + lunch
borrow, borrowing. The speakers of one language may ‘borrow’ words from another.
For instance, the word origami is a borrowing (or loan word) from Japanese,
meaning that English speakers use the word as if it was an ordinary English
word, even if they know that it was originally Japanese.
cardinal numeral. E.g. one, two, three, … Cardinal numerals are the basic numerals,
in contrast with ordinal numerals such as first, second and third.
case. In some languages, nouns and pronouns have different forms to show their
grammatical function as subject, object and so on. English has the vestiges of a
former case system in the personal pronouns, where I and she are used as
subjects but me and her as objects (I saw her and she saw me). In German and
Latin the case system is well developed and applies even to modifying
adjectives; for example, German der kleine Junge (the small boy) is the
'nominative' case used as subject, in contrast with the 'accusative' case den
kleinen Jungen which is used as object (so: Der kleine Junge schläft, 'The small
boy is sleeping', but: Ich kenne den kleinen Jungen, 'I know the small boy'). The
traditional names for the cases in a language such as German are:
 nominative: used as subject (Jane’s friends gave her a present)
 accusative: used as direct object (Jane’s friends gave her a present)
 dative: used as indirect object (Jane’s friends gave her a present)
 genitive: marking a possessor (Jane’s friends gave her a present)
casual speech. A casual register is language used in familiar, informal contexts, in
contrast with more formal registers. For instance, How about a drink? is casual,
in contrast with Would you care for something to drink? (See also: active verb,
contraction, phrasal verb, preposition, tag question)
clause. A clause is a phrase whose head is a verb (whether finite or not). Finite
clauses are especially important because they can be used as complete sentences
(e.g. I live in London.) but if a clause's verb is not finite, it must be changed to
finite before the clause can be used as a complete sentence (e.g. from: (I like) to
live in London to: I live in London). Clauses may be either main clauses or
subordinate clauses.
clause type. See sentence type.
cleft sentence. A sentence such as It was this book that I bought. is called a cleft
sentence because it is the result of 'cleaving' (splitting) a basic sentence (I bought
this book) into two parts and then rejoining these parts with the help of the verb
be. One part (this book) is the ‘focus’ (i.e. where attention is focussed) while the
other part is backgrounded as a relative clause (that I bought). There are two
kinds of cleft sentence:
 In an 'it-cleft' such as this example, the subject is the pronoun it and the
backgrounded relative clause is put at the end: It + was + this book + that I
bought.
 In a 'wh-cleft' sentence the backgrounded part is a free relative clause,
usually introduced by what, which can act as an ordinary noun phrase; so be
simply links this phrase with the focussed element in either order: What I bought
+ was + this book. or: This book + was + what I bought.
clipping. Clipping is a type of word formation in which a new word is created by
shortening an existing one, as when omnibus was clipped to form bus.
coherent, coherence. An effective text needs to be ‘coherent’ and ‘cohesive’. The
term coherence refers to the underlying logic and consistency of a text. The
ideas expressed should be relevant to one another so that the reader can follow
the meaning. The term cohesion refers to the grammatical features in a text
which enable the parts to fit together (see cohesive devices). One way of
creating cohesion is the use of connectives: I sat down and turned on the
television. Just then, I heard a strange noise. The phrase just then relates these
events in time. Cohesion is also achieved by the use of words (such as
pronouns) that refer anaphorically to other parts of the text. In these examples,
such words are underlined:
There was a man waiting at the door. I had never seen him before.
We haven't got a car. We used to have one, but we sold it.
I wonder whether Sarah will pass her driving test. I hope she does. (= I hope
Sarah passes her driving test)
cohesive, cohesion. See coherent
cohesive device. Cohesive devices are words or grammatical patterns that show
cohesion - i.e. that make clear how a text’s parts are related to one another.
Some words such as determiners and pronouns are especially important for
building cohesion because they refer anaphorically to earlier words. Other
words such as prepositions, conjunctions and adverbs (connectives) also make
relations clear. Such words can be classified roughly by their meaning:
• addition: also, furthermore, moreover
• opposition: however, nevertheless, on the other hand
• reinforcing: besides, anyway, after all
• explaining: for example, in other words, that is to say
• listing: first(ly), first of all, finally
• result: therefore, consequently, as a result
• time: just then, meanwhile, later
Another kind of cohesive device is ellipsis, as in Fred’s story is more interesting
than Bill’s, where Bill’s means Bill’s story.
collective noun. A collective noun such as family, team or crowd names a group of
individuals which, in some sense, constitute a single unit. English, unlike some
other languages, allows a singular collective noun to be treated like a plural
noun for purposes of agreement, as in His family are all tall.
collocation. A collocation is a group of words that tend strongly to occur together,
such as white wine, black coffee, dead easy.
command. One of the functions that a clause may have is to issue a command (e.g.
Stand still!). It is best to distinguish the functional classification from
imperative, the sentence type that typically signals it. Thus the imperative
Come in! need not be a command, but could be an invitation or a piece of advice;
and conversely, a command could be conveyed by other sentence types, as in
Will you stand still? or I command you to stand still.
common noun. See noun.
comparative. Bigger is the comparative inflection of big, in contrast with the
superlative form biggest. The basic big is sometimes called the positive form.
The contrast among these three categories is called ‘degree’.
complement. See Subject complement, Object complement. Terminology is
problematic because the term complement is also widely used in linguistics to
include both objects and subject/object complements. However, there is no
established technical alternative for Subject- and Object-complements.
complex sentence. School grammar sometimes distinguishes three kinds of sentence:
simple, complex and compound.
• A simple sentence consists of a single clause (e.g. It was raining.)
• A compound sentence consists of two or more coordinated clauses (e.g. It was
raining but the sun was shining.)
• A complex sentence consists of a main clause with one or more subordinate
clauses (e.g. If it rains, we'll get wet.)
However, grammarians do not recommend this classification because:
 you can’t apply it until you have already identified the clauses and decided
whether they are coordinated or subordinating; so it doesn’t avoid the need for
more detailed analysis.
 it requires a fourth category (which was in fact part of traditional
grammatical analysis) called ‘compound-complex’ for those many sentences that
contain both subordinate and coordinated clauses (e.g. If it rains but the sun
shines, we'll get wet but we won't mind.)
 it is misleading because ‘simple’ sentences can be complicated and
‘complex’ sentences can be very straightforward (e.g. I think you’re wrong.)
A simpler classification contrasting ‘single-clause sentences’ with ‘multiclause sentences’ may sometimes be helpful.
compound sentence. See complex sentence.
compound word, compounding. A compound (or compound word) is a word made
up of two other words, e.g. football, headrest, broomstick, blow-dry, bone-dry.
concrete noun. See abstract noun.
conditional clause. Conditional clauses are subordinate clauses which typically start
with the conjunction if and state the condition under which the main clause is
true; for instance, in I'll help you if I can, the clause if I can states the condition
under which I'll help you. Other conjunctions used in conditionals are unless,
providing, provided, in case and as long as.
The interpretation of a conditional depends on the choice of tense in both the
clauses:
• If it rains, we will get wet. (It may well rain.)
• If it rained, we would get wet. (It probably won't rain.)
• If it had rained, we would have got wet. (It didn't rain.)
Some languages provide a special form for the meaning 'would' (e.g. French
chanterait, 'would sing'), so the term 'conditional' is sometimes used in English
to refer to the form would + verb: would go, would help etc. containing the past
tense of the modal verb will.
conjunction. E.g. and, or, although, if. A conjunction links a following word or
phrase to some other part of the sentence,
- either in coordination (e.g. ... and ....)
- or as a subordinate clause (e.g. ... although ...).
connective. ‘Connective’ is an informal name once used in schools for cohesive
devices whose main function is to connect the ideas expressed in different
clauses; such words may be:
• conjunctions, e.g. but, when, because
• adverbials, e.g. however, then, therefore
connotation. See denotation.
continuous. A synonym for progressive.
contract, contraction. The form I’m is a contracted form, or contraction, of I am. The
same shortening by elision is possible for most English auxiliary verbs and the
word not (e.g. can’t, won’t, hasn’t), as well as a number of other small words
such as and and to. Contraction affects pronunciation, and is shown in writing by
the apostrophe, in contrast with abbreviations, which are primarily conventions
of writing and are signalled, if at all, by a full stop.
convert, conversion. Conversion derives one word from another without any
morphological change. For example, a verb such as walk (as in They walk fast)
can be ‘converted’ into the noun walk, as in They had a nice walk. Conversion is
a particularly important process in English for creating new vocabulary; for
example, very many nouns can be converted into verbs (e.g. to text, to action).
coordinate, coordination. If words or phrases are coordinated, they are linked as
equals by means of a conjunction such as and. (Contrast subordination.) The
forms linked in this way may be of any length, from single words to complete
clauses or even combinations of clauses:
I bought the apples and bananas.
I bought some apples and took them home.
I bought some apples and took them home but I forgot the potatoes.
Coordination is a matter of grammar, not meaning, because the linked
elements need not be equal in meaning. For example, in the coordinated pair He
worked all night and felt terrible next day, the feeling is a consequence of the
working, so the meanings are not equal. The grammatical equality of
coordination can be seen in two ways:
 The coordinated units can share some element outside both, as in He speaks
French and writes Spanish, where speaks and writes share the subject he. This is
not possible in subordination; for example, He speaks French whereas he writes
Spanish does not allow he to be shared, so we cannot say: He speaks French
whereas _ writes Spanish.
 The conjunction belongs equally to both (or all) the coordinated units, so it
has to stand between them (as in: apples and pears or It rained and we got wet never: And we got wet, it rained); in contrast, a subordinating conjunction clearly
belongs to the subordinate clause, so it moves around with this. For instance,
starting with We got wet because it rained we can move the subordinate clause,
including because, by fronting it to give Because it rained, we got wet. If
because had been a coordinating conjunction, we might expect It rained because
we got wet.
By these criteria, the coordinating conjunctions of English are:
 and: He speaks French and writes Spanish.






or: He speaks French or writes Spanish.
but: He speaks French but writes Spanish.
nor: He neither speaks French nor writes Spanish.
then: He first spoke French then wrote Spanish.
yet: He speaks French yet writes Spanish.
so: He speaks French so also writes French.
A single pattern of coordination may link more than two elements, either with
a single conjunction or with a conjunction between each pair:
I bought apples, pears, bananas, grapes and a melon.
I bought apples and pears and banananas and grapes and a melon.
copula. The verb be is sometimes called ‘the copula’. See also linking verb.
corpus. A structured collection of extended examples of written or spoken English is
called a ‘corpus’ (Latin ‘body’; plural: corpora). For example, the British
National Corpus includes 100 million words of recorded speech and written
texts. Most corpora are stored on computer.
correct, correctness. Each language’s grammar defines what is ‘correct’ in that
language and what isn’t; for instance, the order of words in Some enormous
birds ate it is correct in English, but not in French. However, the term correct is
sometimes used to distinguish Standard forms from non-Standard forms; so
He hasn’t done anything might be described as ‘correct’, in contrast with He
ain’t done nothing. This is a muddled and unhelpful use of the term, because the
non-Standard ain’t and nothing are perfectly correct non-Standard forms.
count noun. Words such as pebble and coin are count nouns, in contrast with noncount nouns (sometimes called ‘mass nouns’) such as gravel and money. We
signal this contrast every time we choose an indefinite determiner; for example,
we say a pebble or a coin, but some grit and some money. Count nouns present
their meaning as one or more individual items, so they may be made plural:
three pebbles, two coins, but this is not possible for non-count nouns (so plurals
like gravels and moneys are normally impossible). In contrast, non-count nouns
present their meaning as a ‘substance’, which may be measured out but not
counted. This contrast is an important grammatical resource as it allows us to
choose how to present a meaning; for example, we can ‘eat chocolate’, or ‘eat a
chocolate’, and we can ‘enjoy red wine’ or ‘enjoy red wines’.
dative. See case.
declarative. See sentence.
definite. Determiners such as the and this are definite, whereas a(n) and some are
indefinite. These words normally show whether or not the person or thing
concerned is already known to the reader or listener; so on first mention, an
indefinite determiner is normal, to be replaced in later uses by a definite: Once
upon a time, there was a king and a queen. The king was rich and the queen was
beautiful. Pronouns may also be classified as definite (e.g. this) or indefinite
(e.g. who, anyone).
definite article. See article, definite.
degree. See comparative.
degree modifier. Adjectives and adverbs that can inflect for degree may be modified
by adverbs such as very, too, so and rather, which are therefore called ‘degree
modifiers’.
deixis, deictic. Words such as me, you, here and now have a special kind of meaning
called ‘deictic’ (‘pointing’), which is based on the immediate context consisting
of the speaker or writer (me), the person addressed (you), the time and place
(here, now). This means that we cannot understand who or what such words are
referring to unless we know the context in which they are uttered or written. See
also tense.
demonstrative. The determiners this and that, which contrast ‘near’ and ‘far’, are
called ‘demonstrative’.
denotation. The denotation of a word is its basic meaning as given in a dictionary; for
example, the denotation of grammar is the study of a particular part of language.
In contrast, a word’s connotation includes any additional values and
associations the thing concerned may have for speakers, such as being exciting
or boring.
dependent, dependency. See subordination.
derive, derivation. Derivation deals with one of the two ways in which morphology
can change words, contrasting with inflection. For instance, from friend we can
derive friend-ly; from friendly, un-friendly; and from unfriendly, unfriendli-ness.
Each of these examples is a different dictionary word. In contrast, inflection
typically changes the shape of a word to mark a grammatical feature, as in friend
- friend-s (i.e. singular versus plural), but without changing it into a different
dictionary word. In English, words are derived by affixation (friend-ly),
compounding (foot+ball) or conversion (verb walk → noun walk, as in have a
walk), but we also use other more marginal patterns such as blending (smog),
abbreviation (Co.), acronymy (EU) and clipping (bus).
It is better to reserve the term derivation for relations between words within
one language and at one time, in contrast with etymology, which relates a word
to its historical origins in the same language or a different one.
descriptive grammar. See grammar.
determiner. E.g. the, a, this, any, my. A determiner stands before a noun and any
other words that modify the noun. A singular noun such as boy or number (but
not coffee or beauty) requires a determiner, so we can say with the boy but not:
*with boy.
Determiners include:
 articles: a/an, the
 demonstratives: this/that, these/those
 possessives: my, your, his, her, its, our, their
 quantifiers: some, any, no, every, each, all
 some question words: which (which car?), what (what size?), whose (whose
coat?)
 the relative whose (e.g. the person whose name was on the door)
Some grammarians also classify numbers and other expressions of quantity as
determiners:
 numbers: three, fifty, three thousand etc
 quantity expressions: many, much, few, little, both, all, either, neither,
each, every, enough
Many determiners can also be used as pronouns. These include:
 the demonstratives: I bought this.
 the possessives (with slight changes of form): Yours is here, mine is there.
 question words: Which did you buy?
 most of the quantifiers: I bought some.
When used as pronouns, these words are not followed by a noun - their reference
generally includes an understood noun which is provided by the context:
I've got some books. This (i.e. this book) is for you.
dialect. See register.
direct object. See object.
direct speech. There are two ways of reporting what somebody says: direct speech
and indirect speech.
 In direct speech, we use the speaker's original words (as in a speech bubble).
In text, speech marks ('…' or "…" – also called ‘inverted commas’ or ‘quotes’)
mark the beginning and end of direct speech:
Helen said, 'I'm going home'.
“What do you want?” I asked.
 In indirect (or reported) speech, we report what was said but do not use the
exact words of the original speaker. Typically we change pronouns and verb
tenses, and speech marks are not used:
Helen said (that) she was going home.
I asked them what they wanted.
discourse. Any continuous stretch of language in ordinary use, especially spoken
language, can be called ‘discourse’. Discourse is controlled by rules and
conventions that go beyond the rules of grammar, such as the need for
coherence and cohesion.
double negative. In non-standard English (and also in earlier stages of English and
many other languages, e.g. French), a negative may be expressed twice – a socalled ‘double negative’. For example:
We didn't see nobody.
I don’t want to go nowhere.
Such double negatives are not acceptable in standard English. The equivalent
standard forms would be:
We didn't see anybody.
I don’t want to go anywhere.
Strictly speaking, the non-standard pattern should be called 'multiple negation',
because there is no upper limit to the number of negative words allowed:
I haven't never owed nothing to no-one.
Nor never none / Shall mistress be of it, save I alone. (Shakespeare)
ed form. See participle.
elide, elision. If a sound is omitted in casual speech it is said to be ‘elided’; e.g. t can
be elided in want to to give wanna. Eliding sounds produces contracted words,
as when and contracts to’n in boys ’n girls. Contrast ellipsis.
ellipsis, elliptical. The process called ‘ellipsis’ allows the omission of words in order
to avoid repetition; for example, Mary doesn’t like oranges, but Jane does is
understood as meaning ‘does like oranges’. Ellipsis is a cohesive device. See
also tag question.
etymology. A word’s etymology is its history: its origins in earlier forms of English
or other languages, and how its form and meaning have changed. For example,
the etymology of the word verb relates it to the Latin word verbum, which means
simply ‘word’ and also lies behind our adjective verbal.
euphemism. A mild or vague expression used instead of one with negative
connotations; for example, pass away is a euphemism for die.
exclamation. An exclamation is an utterance expressing strong emotion (joy, wonder,
anger, surprise, etc) and, if written down, is usually followed by an exclamation
mark. Exclamations can be either full sentences or interjections such as Oh
dear! Good grief! Ow!
exclamative. Some exclamations begin with what or how:
What a beautiful day!
How stupid (he is)!
What a quiet little girl.
Exclamations like these are called ‘exclamative’ and may have no verb. See
sentence.
existential sentence. A sentence (more accurately, a clause) in which the subject is
the word there, as in There’s a fly in my soup, or (more formally): There arose a
serious dispute.
expletive. An expletive is a ‘dummy’ word which has no meaning but is required by
the rules of grammar. English has four such words:
 there, used as the subject of existential sentences: There’s a fly in my soup
(meaning the same as A fly is in my soup.)
 it, used when a subject or object is needed but
o either none is needed by the meaning: It was raining.
o or it would otherwise be a clause which has been delayed to the
end of the sentence, as in some cleft sentences: It was here that I
left them.
 that, used to introduce a clause: I know that I’m late (which means the same
as: I know I’m late); the book that I bought (which means the same as: the book I
bought)
 to, used before an infinitive: I helped him to get up (which means the same
as: I helped him get up). I ought to go (which means the same as: I should go.)
feminine. See gender.
finite. In It was raining, the past-tense verb was is finite, but the participle raining
is not. This contrast reflects the rule that ‘every sentence needs a finite verb’,
because a past-tense verb such as was could be the only verb in a sentence (e.g.
He was sad.), whereas the participle raining could not . A verb is finite if its
inflection is:
 present-tense (It begins here.)
 past-tense (It began here.)
 imperative (Begin here!)
So a verb is not finite if it is:
 a participle (It is beginning. It has begun. I saw it beginning.)
 an infinitive (e.g. It will begin. I saw it begin.)
focus. See cleft sentence.
formal. See casual.
free relative clause. See relative clause.
front, fronting. A word that would normally follow the verb may be ‘fronted’ to the
start of the clause; for instance, a fronted adverbial is an adverbial which has
been put at the front of the clause.
not fronted: The wind blew our tree down last night.
fronted: Last night, the wind blew our tree down.
See word order.
function, functional. Every word we use not only belongs to a word class but also has
a grammatical function, which explains how it contributes to the overall
meaning; for instance, in grammar book, both words are nouns, but the function
of grammar is to modify the meaning of book. The main grammatical functions
are:
 modifier: We found a big book.
 subject: We found a big book.
 object: We found a big book.
 subject/object complement: He was late and made her angry.
 head: big book; We found a big book.
function word. A synonym for grammatical word.
future tense. Some languages have a future tense comparable with its present and
past tenses. For example, French contrasts chantera, ‘will sing’, with chante,
‘sings’ and chantait, ‘used to sing’. English, in contrast, has no future tense.
Instead, reference to future time can be marked in a number of different ways, all
of which include a present-tense verb:
 We leave tomorrow.
 We shall leave tomorrow.
 We are leaving tomorrow.
 We are going to leave tomorrow.
Moreover, the modal verb will, which is often claimed to mark the future tense,
may be used for repeated events (Boys will be boys) and may even be used in the
past tense: Having left home, he would never see her again.
gender. The grammatical contrast that some languages make between categories such
as masculine, feminine and neuter; for instance, the masculine or feminine
gender of a French noun decides whether the definite article has the form le or
la, and adjectives agree in gender with their noun. Grammatical gender
generally corresponds to the biological contrast of sex when applied to animals,
but for inanimates it is basically arbitrary; so in French ‘book’ is masculine
while ‘table’ is feminine, giving le grand livre (the big book) but la grande table
(the big table). In contrast, languages such as English have no gender contrast.
generic reference. Nouns can be used to refer either to specific individuals (e.g. The
dog barked) or (generically) to an entire class or species (e.g. The dinosaur is
extinct). The latter use is often called ‘generic reference’.
genitive case. See case.
gerund. See participle.
grammar, grammatical. The grammar of a language consists of that language’s
conventions for using words to express meanings. Grammar is normally divided
into two parts:
 syntax – how words combine with each other to make sentences.
 morphology – how smaller parts combine to make words.
Grammar in this sense is simply part of the whole language, contrasted with its
lexicon.
In another sense, grammar is the study of grammar in the first sense. There are
two different approaches to the study of grammar:
 ‘descriptive’ grammar, which simply describes (and tries to understand)
grammar as it actually is.
 ‘prescriptive’ grammar, which tries to change the grammar by ‘prescribing’
some forms which are not used and ‘proscribing’ other forms which are used.
This approach tends to proscribe non-standard forms such as ain’t, and also
some patterns which are current in standard English but are not found in highstatus languages like Latin and French, such as split infinitives and stranded
prepositions.
A sentence is described as ‘grammatical’ if it is allowed by the grammar of
the language concerned, and as ‘ungrammatical’ if it is not. For example, *I him
see is ungrammatical in English (although a word-for-word translation into
French would be grammatical: Je le vois.) Grammarians write * before examples
to show that they are ungrammatical.
grammatical word. Some grammarians call words such as to, that, the and is
‘grammatical words’, in contrast with ‘lexical words’ such as dog or bark.
However it is generally agreed that there is no clear boundary between the two.
group genitive. If we add the apostrophe ’s of possession to a noun which has a
following modifier, such as girl with brown hair, the result (e.g. the girl with
brown hair’s name) is called a ‘group genitive’ because it is clear that the
possessive marker belongs to the entire phrase (a ‘group’ of words) rather than
just to the head noun (girl).
head. The head of a phrase is the central word of that phrase. Other parts of a phrase
are grammatically less central and have the function of modifying the head. For
example:
 In the adjective phrase very silly, the head is silly, with very acting to modify
it.
 In the noun phrase very silly squirrels, the head is squirrels, with very silly
acting to modify it.
‘Head’ is a functional label and can be applied to words of different word
classes. The word class of the head decides how the whole phrase is classified.
For instance, an adjective phrase is a phrase with an adjective (e.g. silly) as its
head, while a noun phrase is headed by a noun (e.g. squirrels).
historic present. One of the uses of the present tense is to describe an incident in the
past as though it was happening now: I’m sitting in this cafe, and a guy comes up
to me and says ...
homograph. If two different words have the same spelling as each other, they are
often called homographs:
The bear growled – I can’t bear it. (same pronunciation – also homophones)
a lead pencil - the dog's lead (different pronunciation)
The term homograph is sometimes reserved for words that have the same
spelling but are not homophones. See also homonym.
homonym. Words which are either homophones or homographs are often called
homonyms. The term homonym is sometimes reserved for words which are both
homophones and homographs (such as the noun and verb bear). It also tends to
be reserved for words whose meanings are radically different, such as bank
(edge of a river, or a financial institution), in contrast with polysemous words
whose alternative meanings are closely related.
homophone. Two words are homophones if they have the same pronunciation:
The fair has arrived. She has fair hair. (same spelling)
read – reed (different spelling)
The term homophone is sometimes reserved for words that have the same
pronunciation but are not homographs. See also homonym.
hypernym. See hyponym
hyponym. A word’s meaning is more general than that of its hyponyms; for example,
dog is a hyponym of animal, and terrier is a hyponym of dog. Conversely,
animal is a hypernym of dog. (Hint: in Greek, hypo means ‘beneath’, as in
hypodermic, ‘under the skin’; hyper means ‘above’, as in hypermarket; Greek
hypo and hyper correspond to Latin sub- and super-).
idiom. An idiom is an expression which is not meant literally and whose meaning
cannot be deduced from knowledge of the individual words. For example:
You look a bit under the weather this morning.
Are you all right?
Try and keep to the point of the discussion.
You're always introducing red herrings.
You and I have the same problems - we're in the same boat.
That name rings a bell. I've heard it before somewhere.
imperative. See sentence.
imperfect. The term ‘imperfect’ is used in grammars of languages such as French for
the verb inflection that might be translated by the English past progressive (e.g.
was singing) or by used to (e.g. used to sing). The imperfect is not the opposite
of the English perfect.
impersonal style. This term may be helpful in discussions of literary style, where
style may be described as ‘personal’ or ‘impersonal’, but it is best avoided in
grammar because it is hard to relate to grammatical patterns.
inanimate. See animate.
indefinite article. See article.
indefinite determiner or pronoun. See definite.
indicative. In some languages, finite verb inflections are classified as ‘indicative’,
‘imperative’ or ‘subjunctive’; this contrast is called ‘mood’. Indicative verbs
are used in ordinary statements and questions in main clauses, with subjunctives
used in special circumstance such as some subordinate clauses or in referring to
hypothetical situations. For example, French subjunctive verbs are used after
certain conjunctions and expressions of uncertainty such as ‘It is unlikely that
...’
indirect object. See direct object.
indirect speech. See direct speech.
infinitive. In English, the infinitive is the basic form of the verb without any
additional endings. For example, play is the infinitive form (as opposed to
playing, played or plays) and be is the infinitive corresponding to am, is, are,
was, were. Apart from the verb be, a verb’s infinitive has the same form as its
plural present tense (They play) and as its imperative (Play well!), so a verb in
its basic form requires different classifications according to how it is being used.
 It is an infinitive when used after to:
I want to go home.
It's good to be here.
The person to see is Ahmed.
(Notice that these two words may be separated in so-called 'split infinitives': to
boldly go or: I'm hoping to actually go inside.)
 The infinitive is also used with many auxiliary verbs:
I will play
He should play
Do you play?
 It can also be used with some ordinary verbs, as an object complement:
I heard him come in.
They let him sit down.
inflect, inflection. Inflecting a word changes (literally, 'bends') the word's normal
shape to indicate tense, number or other grammatical features; each of the
resulting forms, or the affixes that mark them, can be called ‘an inflection’ of the
basic word. For example:
 walk may be inflected for contrasts such as tense to give: walks, walked,
walking
 shoe may be inflected for number to give: shoes
 old may be inflected for degree to give: older, oldest
informal. See formal.
ing-form. See participle.
intensifier. Words such as thoroughly and hardly, as in thoroughly disapprove or
hardly know, are sometimes called ‘intensifiers’. The term can also be applied to
degree modifiers.
interjection. See exclamation.
interrogative. See sentence.
intransitive verb. See transitive verb .
invert, inversion. See auxiliary verb.
irregular. See regular.
it-cleft. See cleft sentence.
lexeme. See word.
lexical word. See grammatical word.
lexicon. A language’s lexicon is its vocabulary – i.e. its stock of lexemes.
Traditionally this is contrasted with the language’s grammar, but there is no
clear boundary between the fine detail of one and the broad generalisations of
the other.
linking verb. Verbs that are used with a subject complement are sometimes called
‘linking verbs’ (or ‘link verbs’). The most common example is the copula be,
but others are become, seem, look (as in look nice) and get (as in get wet).
loan word. See borrowing.
main clause. The clauses in a sentence may be divided into one or more main clauses
and any number of subordinate clauses. For instance, in the sentence The fact
that she lied shows that she’s not to be trusted, but we may give her a second
chance., there are two main clauses and two subordinate clauses:
1. The fact that she lied shows that she’s dishonest – main clause
2. we may give her a second chance – main clause, coordinated to 1.
3. that she lied – subordinate clause
4. that she’s dishonest – subordinate clause.
The two subordinate clauses 3 and 4 must be part of the first main clause 1
because they are subordinate to words in this clause: 3 modifies fact (which
fact?) and 4 is the object of shows.
In general, a clause is a main clause unless it is subordinate to the whole or
part of another clause. An exception, however, is made for direct speech; for
example, in He muttered, “I hate you!” the quotation would normally be
classified as a main clause acting as object of the verb muttered.
main verb. In a pair such as is working, the first is an auxiliary verb and the second
is called a ‘main verb’. The term main verb covers any verb which is not an
auxiliary verb, so main verbs are as easy to recognise as auxiliaries. However the
terminology is misleading: although working carries more meaning, it is
grammatically subordinate to is because the latter is finite. So instead of He is
working we can say just He is (with ellipsis of working), but we can’t say just He
working.
major sentence. A major sentence is one built round a finite verb. In contrast, there is
no finite verb in a ‘minor’ sentence, e.g. How about a cup of tea? Oh for a
horse! What a mess! Why not go home? To think you were there all the time!
masculine. See gender.
mass noun. See count noun.
metalanguage, metalinguistic. Metalanguage is the language we use when talking
about language itself. It includes words like sentence, noun, paragraph,
meaning, pronunciation and all the terms in this glossary.
metaphor. A metaphor is an expression which presents an abstract notion (e.g. anger)
in terms of something more concrete (e.g. fire). For example:
He was boiling with rage.
He is an ass.
He fell in love.
minor sentence. See major sentence.
modal verb. E.g. will, might, must. Modal verbs are important for communicating
complex ideas because they express meanings such as possibility and obligation,
but their distinctiveness lies in their grammar. They are auxiliary verbs which:
 have no -s in the present tense even when their subject is singular: He can
swim. (not: *He cans swim. Compare: He knows how to swim.)
 are always either past or present tense, so they have no imperative form,
infinitive or participles:
Please be able to swim! but not: *Please can swim!
It's important to be able to swim. but not: *It's important to can swim.
Being able to swim is important. but not: *Canning swim is important.
 are followed by an infinitive (usually without to).
The main modal verbs, by these criteria, are: will, would, can, could, may,
might, shall, should, must and ought.
modify, modifier, modification. If one word modifies another, the modifying word
(the ‘modifier’) stands as near as possible to the modified word and makes the
latter’s meaning more specific. For example:
 In big book, big modifies book so that the latter means 'big book' instead of
just 'book'.
 In walks quickly, quickly modifies walks so that the latter means 'walks
quickly' and not just 'walks'.
Taken in this general sense, any phrase is built out of a head and other
words or phrases that modify the head. For example,
 a verb's subject modifies it, so in Mary walked, Mary modifies the meaning
of walked so that it means 'Mary walked' rather than simply 'walked'.
 a preposition's object modifies it, so in behind Jane, Jane modifies behind
so that it means 'behind Jane', rather than simply 'behind'.
 an adverbial modifies the verb, so in Mary walked behind Jane, behind Jane
modifies Mary walked so that it means 'Mary walked behind Jane', not just 'Mary
walked'.
A modifier positioned before the head is called a premodifier, and one
positioned after the head is a postmodifier; for example, in big books with long
titles, the head is books, its premodifier is big and its postmodifier is with long
titles.
mood. See indicative.
morpheme. A morpheme is the smallest unit of morphology, so it is the smallest part
of a word that relates to the word's grammar or meaning. A word may consist of
• one morpheme: house
• two morphemes: house-s, hous-ing
• three or more morphemes: house-keep-ing, un-happi-ness.
Morphemes may be classified as bases or affixes.
morphology. A word’s morphology is its internal make-up defined in terms of a base,
with changes such as the addition of affixes. Complex morphology may show:
• inflection: house-s, walk-ed
• derivation: hous-ing, de-motiv-ate.
multi-clause sentence – see complex sentence.
negative, negation. See affirmative.
neologism. A neologism is a newly-created word, whether borrowed from another
language or created out of ‘native’ material by derivation.
neuter. See gender.
nominative. See case.
non-count noun. See count noun.
non-finite. See finite.
non-restrictive relative clause. See relative clause.
non-Standard English. See Standard English.
notation. Grammarians have developed a number of useful conventions for discussing
grammar:
 * for ungrammatical sentences.
 italics or underlining (or both) for words that are being discussed or quoted
as examples, rather than used in the ordinary way.
noun. E.g. cat, person, arrival, purpose. Nouns – the largest word-class of all – are
sometimes called ‘naming words’ because they name (more technically, refer
to) people, places and things. This may be a useful way to remember what nouns
are, but doesn't always help to distinguish nouns from other word classes
because these can also have similar meanings to nouns; for instance, people can
be referred to by pronouns (him, someone), and places by prepositions (behind
the sofa).
The most reliable way to recognise nouns is by their grammatical behaviour.
Specifically, most nouns:
 can be counted and show that they're plural if the number is two or more
(e.g. one dog, two dog-s, one mouse, two mice),
 can be combined with the (e.g. the dog, the mouse),
 can be used – either alone or with a determiner such as the – as the subject
or object of a verb (e.g. The dog was hungry, Mice love cheese.)
Nouns are subdivided into:
 common nouns: dog, wine, time, day
 proper nouns (‘names’ in the more conventional sense): Mary, London,
Wednesday, Dad
(See also count noun.)
noun phrase. See phrase.
number. See plural.
object. A verb's object often shows who the action affected (often called the
'patient'): We ate bread. (The bread is affected by the action of eating.) But the
object may have many other roles in the verb's meaning: We like bread. (Not
affected by the liking.) We baked bread. (Created by the baking.)
Because of this wide variation in meaning, it is best to identify objects by their
grammar. A verb's object:
 normally stands just after the verb (in contrast with the subject, which
stands before the verb). So the normal order of elements in an English clause is:
subject - verb - object (S - V - O).
 is a noun, pronoun or noun-phrase. We like it. We like the bread they serve
here.
 is expected after the verb, according to whether it is transitive or
intransitive. For example,
o after like, we expect an object, so it would be odd to say simply I
like.
o after eat, an object is possible but not obligatory, so we could say
either We ate it. or: We ate.
o after sleep, we don't expect an object, so it would be odd to say
We slept it. The ‘apparent object’ last night in We slept well last
night is not an object but an adverbial because it is no more
expected after sleep than after any other verb.
Unlike complements, most objects
 can be turned into the subject of a passive verb:
Object: Thomas made a lovely meal - A lovely meal was made by Thomas.
Complement: The stew made a lovely meal. But not: *A lovely meal was made
by the stew.
 cannot be adjectives.
Complement: He semed sad.
Object: not: *He saw sad.
 do not describe the subject (or another object).
Complement: He became a teacher. (‘a teacher’ describes him, after the
change)
Object: He met a teacher. (The teacher is a different person from him, not a
description of him.)
In all the examples given so far, the object is a ‘direct object’, so-called
because any effect applies to it directly (e.g. the food is affected directly by the
eating). In contrast, the pronoun them in We gave them a present is an indirect
object, which typically identifies a person affected only indirectly by the transfer
to them of the thing identified by the direct object. An indirect object can often
be replaced by a preposition phrase headed by to or for (e.g. We gave the
children a present – We gave a present to the children. Or: We made the
children a cake – We made a cake for the children.)
Grammarians often extend the term object from verbs to prepositions. In this
usage, London is the object of from in the phrase from London. There are
obvious similarities between the objects of verbs and of prepositions, including
their position after the head, and (in languages that have case) the range of cases
found.
object complement Like a verb’s subject complement, its object complement
‘completes’ the verb’s meaning by adding information about the verb’s object.
For instance, after It made Mary ...., where Mary is the verb's object, we expect
information about Mary’s actions (It made Mary sneeze), her condition (It made
Mary tired), and so on.
Other verbs that allow object complements include consider, see, expect and
persuade (e.g. I consider myself lucky. We saw him fall down. I expect him to
arrive soon. They persuaded us to join them.)
objective case. A synonym for accusative case.
ordinal numeral. See cardinal numeral.
orthography. (The study of) correct spelling.
parse, parsing. A traditional grammatical exercise for school-children was to ‘parse’
the words in a sentence by assigning each one to its part of speech (Latin: pars
orationis), as well as giving a fixed range of information about its inflection and
about its function in the sentence. For example, in the previous sentence, the
word words would be described as:
 a common noun
 the plural of word
 the object of the verb parse.
In modern computational linguistics, the term parse has been extended to
include the entire structural analysis of a sentence as assigned by a computer.
part of speech. See word class.
participle. Verbs in English have two inflections called ‘participles’. They are
commonly called the ‘present participle’ and the ‘past participle’.
 present participle The present participle always ends in -ing (working,
reading, going etc). Although it is called 'present', it is used in all progressive
forms, whether past or present: she is going, she was going, she will be going,
she would have been going.
Present participles can also be used:
o in adverbials: Walking down the road, I heard a shout.
o in relative clauses: The man walking down the road slipped and
fell over.
o in subject complements and object complements of other verbs:
He kept talking. I saw him walking down the road.
o as adjectives: the falling leaves
The -ing ending is also used in a verb functioning as a noun. For example: I
enjoy reading, Reading is important. ('Reading' is used as a noun in these
examples.) This -ing form is sometimes called a verbal noun or a gerund.
 past participle The past participle is sometimes called the ‘ed-form’
because it often ends in -ed (worked, played) but many common verbs are
irregular and have other endings, eg -t (kept), -n (flown), and -en (stolen).
Past participles are used:
o after have to make perfect forms: I've worked, he has fallen, we
should have gone
o after be or verbs such as get, to make passive forms: I was asked,
they are kept, it has been stolen
Here too, the name is misleading, because passive forms need not
refer to the past: A toast will be drunk.
Passive past participles can also be used in the same range of
ways as present participles:
 in adverbials: Written in 1923, the book has been
translated into 25 languages.
 in relative clauses: The goods stolen from the shop have
been recovered.
 in subject/object complements: I saw it stolen.
 as adjectives: stolen goods.
particle. See phrasal verb.
part of speech. See word class.
passive verb. See active verb.
past participle. See participle.
past tense. A past-tense verb (‘a verb in the past tense’) normally
 has a suffix ed: walked, debated - but many common verbs have irregular
forms: was, came, thought, put, went
 refers to an event or state in the past: Yesterday I came home and went to
bed early.
 has a subject because it is finite: It rained. not: *Rained.
The past tense can also have other uses and meanings:
 In a subordinate clause which takes its tense from the main clause: I
thought today wasTuesday.
 In a modal verb with conditional meaning: I would love a coffee.
 In some fixed expressions: It's time we solved this problem.
patient. See agent.
perfect. The perfect of a verb is formed by using the auxiliary verb have with the
past participle of the verb (e.g. has shown, had taken, have helped). The tense
of have distinguishes the 'present perfect' (has seen) from the 'past perfect' (had
seen), traditionally called the ‘pluperfect’. It can also be combined with the
progressive (e.g. he has been reading,called 'present perfect progressive').
Like the past tense, the perfect refers to an event or state in the past, but the
perfect generally calls attention to its consequences, as in He has gone to lunch.
(he is still away - compare: He went to lunch.)
person In grammar, a distinction is made among 'first person', 'second person' and
'third person’. The first person is the speaker, the second person is the person
spoken to, and everyone else is a 'third' person. These persons are distinguished
in the personal pronouns (me - you - he/she/it; myself - yourself – himself).
In some languages, the person of a verb's subject also affects the verb's form;
this was true in earlier stages of English (Shakespeare's I have - thou hast - he
hath or he has) but now survives in Standard English only in the present tense
singular of most verbs (I/you walk - he walks), and in the past tense of the verb
be (you were - I/he was).
personal pronoun. See pronoun.
personal style. See impersonal style.
phrasal verb. Many verbs in English (and some other languages such as German)
combine with prepositions to produce idioms. For instance, look after (as in He
looked after his daughter) means ‘care for’, and give up (as in I give up) means
‘stop trying’. Such verb-preposition combinations are called ‘phrasal verbs’, and
can be classified according to whether:
 the preposition is used on its own, like an adverb (in which case it may be
called a ‘particle’): give up, get on, be off
 heads a full preposition phrase: look after x, take after x, look into x
 both: give up on x, look in on x, put up with x
It can be hard to distinguish a full preposition phrase (look after x) from a
combination of a particle followed by an object (look up x). The easiest clue is
that a particle can occur either before or after the object, whereas a preposition
always stands before its object:
 verb + particle + object: I looked up the word. or: I looked the word up.
 verb + preposition phrase: I looked up the street. but not: *I looked the street
up.
Phrasal verbs are often relatively casual, and have more formal single-word
synonyms which are borrowed from other languages: ring up – telephone; give
up – abandon; try out – attempt.
phrase. A phrase is a group of words containing one word – its head – which all the
other words help to modify. For example, in Small babies cry, the phrase small
babies consists of the head, babies, and its modifier small. Similarly, the entire
clause Small babies cry is a special kind of phrase consisting of cry and the
smaller phrase which modifies cry, its subject small babies.
Phrases can be classified according to the word class of their head word; so
for example, small babies is a noun phrase because its head is a noun.
Similarly, we have:
• adjective phrases: He almost immediately ordered a very large ice-cream for
every pupil.
• adverb phrases: He almost immediately ordered a very large ice-cream for
every pupil.
• preposition phrases: He almost immediately ordered a very large ice-cream
for every pupil.
The exception is the term verb phrase, which is best avoided because it is used
in too many different, and conflicting, ways. The best name for a phrase headed
by a verb is the well-established term clause.
Notice the difference in terminology between pairs such as adverb phrase
and adverbial, where an adverb phrase is a phrase headed by an adverb, whereas
an adverbial is a word or phrase that functions like an adverb. This distinction
between class and function allows us to analyse something as a preposition
phrase functioning as an adverbial (e.g. for every pupil in the above example).
This definition of phrases assumes that a phrase must always contain at least
two words, so that in Babies cry, babies is not a phrase although small babies
would be. You may come across a very different view of phrases which allows
them to consist of nothing but their head word; in this view, babies in Babies cry
would be both a word and a phrase - i.e. a noun and a noun phrase. This
alternative view requires more complicated structures because of all the extra
phrases that have to be recognised. On the other hand, it also allows simpler
grammars because a single term such as noun phrase covers at least two
possibilities, which are always available: a single unmodified noun, or a noun
heading a many-word phrase. The definition given here is probably better for use
in schools, where grammatical analysis is more important than grammar-writing.
pluperfect. See perfect. In Latin, one of the inflections of a verb was called the
‘pluperfect’, which would normally be translated into English as a past perfect.
For example, amaveram meant ‘I had loved’.
plural. A plural noun is an inflection which refers to more than one example of the
noun’s basic meaning; for instance, whereas the singular dog refers to just one
dog, its plural inflection dogs refers to more than one dog. The contrast between
singular and plural is called ‘number’.
In English, regular plurals contain the suffix s (e.g. cats, dogs, horses), but
there are a few nouns with irregular morphology (e.g. mice, formulae). Some
plural nouns also have irregular meanings because they refer to a single example
or quantity; for example, plural oats has a very similar meaning to singular
wheat,and plural scales is similar in meaning to singular balance.
polarity. See affirmative, tag question.
polysemy, polysemous. Most words have a range of possible meanings rather than
just one single meaning; for example, even an apparently straightforward noun
such as book may refer to a physical object (I’ve lost that book) or to the abstract
contents (I’ve finished writing that book). This phenomenon is called ‘polysemy’
and words like book are described as ‘polysemous’. (Contrast homonymy.)
positive. See affirmative and comparative.
possessive, possession. In my house or Mary’s cat, the words my and Mary’s are
called ‘possessive’ modifiers of the following noun because I ‘possess’ the
house and Mary ‘possesses’ the cat. Although the term possessive is helpful, it is
important to remember that the same grammatical patterns can express a wide
range of real-world relations that go well beyond possession in its ordinary
sense, to cover ideas, related people, names, events and so on. Unfortunately
there is no widely accepted alternative.
In English, the possessive may be a possessive determiner such as my, as in
the following examples which illustrate the range of meanings covered: my
house, your wedding, his name, her age, our arrival, their death. A posessive
pronoun is also possible, with ellipsis of the ‘possessed’ noun: mine, yours,
hers.
The possessive may also be a noun or noun phrase followed by an
apostrophe and –s: Mary's house, my best friend's name. A possessive with 's
acts as a determiner, so (unlike some other languages) no other determiner is
possible, as in the Mary's house, a my book.
An alternative way of expressing the 'possessor' is to use the preposition of,
which is often preferable, especially if the possessor needs a long noun phrase.
For example:
Mary's house but: the house of the girl who sits behind me in class
their arrival but: the arrival of the Queen of Sheba.
postmodifier. See modify.
predicate. The predicate is that part of a clause which is not the subject but which
gives information about the subject. So, in the sentence Clare visited her new
school, the subject is Clare and the predicate is visited her new school. This kind
of analysis is popular among logicians and some grammarians, but the analyses
assumed elsewhere in this glossary do not recognise the predicate as a single unit
of grammar. For example, in Clare visited her new school, the verb visited is
paired equally with its object her new school and its subject Clare; there is no
grammatical unit visited her new school.
predicative. See adjective.
prefix. See affix.
premodifier. See modify.
preposition. E.g. of, at, over, by, with. A preposition is usually followed by a noun,
pronoun or noun phrase (which is often called the preposition’s object):
We got home at midnight.
Did you come here by car?
Are you coming with me?
They jumped over a fence.
What's the name of this street?
I fell asleep during the film.
Prepositions often indicate
 time (at midnight/during the film/on Friday),
 position (at the station/in a field)
 direction (to the station/over a fence).
But there are many other meanings, including
 possession (of this street),
 means (by car)
 accompaniment (with me).
In questions and a few other structures such as relative clauses, prepositions
are often ‘stranded’ because their object has been fronted:
Who did you go out with?
We haven't got enough money to live on.
I found the book that I was looking for.
In formal style, the preposition tends to go before whom or which (with whom,
about which etc):
With whom do you wish to speak?
See also particle and phrasal verb.
prepositional passive. See active verb.
preposition phrase. See phrase. Preposition phrases are often called 'prepositional
phrases'.
prescriptive grammar. See grammar.
present participle. See participle.
present tense. A present-tense verb (‘a verb in the present tense’) normally refers to
a state or event that exists now. For instance,
I understand your problem. (The state of understanding exists now.)
I promise to come home early. (The action of promising is happening now.)
Smith passes the ball to Brown, and Brown kicks it into touch. (The actions are
happening now.)
I generally get up at 8 o'clock. (My routine of getting up exists now.)
I leave tomorrow. (My plan for leaving exists now.)
John tells me that you live in London. (Though the action of telling was in the
past, its effect on me exists now.)
Hamlet enters on the left. (The action of entering exsts in a permanent 'now'.)
He has gone for lunch. (The effects of the action of going exist now.)
He is going for lunch soon. (The plan for going exists now.)
A man walks into a pub and orders a drink.... (The events exist in an imaginary
‘now’.)
As these examples show, there are many different kinds of 'now' and many
possible relations in time between the state or event referred to and this ‘now’.
A present-tense verb normally has either no suffix or –s (depending on the
subject). (Modal verbs are exceptional in never having –s.)
progressive. The progressive is normally formed by combining the verb’s present
participle with be, as in is working, were trying. The progressive generally
refers to an event which is already in progress, or which is already planned:
He was working at 5 o’clock this morning. (At 5 o’clock his work was already
in progress.)
I’m going on holiday tomorrow. (My plan is already ‘in progress’.)
It can also be combined with the other aspect contrast, perfect (e.g. he has been
reading).
pronoun. E.g. me, him, he, his, himself, who, what, that, someone. A pronoun
functions like a noun, and is often described as 'being used instead of a noun' hence the name pro-noun. This means that pronouns can be used wherever it is
possible to use a noun or noun phrase. But pronouns are also different from
nouns:
 pronouns are harder to modify than nouns:
I saw a small book, but not: *I saw small it.
 pronouns are grammatically more specialised, because they combine the
characteristics of a noun with those of a determiner:
I saw it could be used instead of I saw the book but not instead of: I saw a
book. (Both it and the are definite.)
Who did you see? could be used instead of Which person did you see? (Both
who and which are question words.)
Did you see anyone? could be used instead of Did you see any person?
In fact, most determiners can be turned into pronouns by removing their
following noun:
That (book) is his (book).
Did you buy any (books)?
Like determiners, pronouns can be classified into types:
 demonstratives: this/that, these/those
 possessives: mine/yours/his/hers/its/ours/theirs
 quantifiers: some, any, none, many, much, few, little, both, all, either,
neither, each, enough
 numbers: three, fifty, three thousand etc
 question words: who which, what, whose, when, where
 relative pronouns: who, which, whose, when, where.
But not all pronouns correspond to determiners; other types include:
 personal pronouns: I/me, you, he/him, she/her, it, we/us, they/them
 reflexive pronouns: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves,
yourselves, themselves
proper noun. See noun.
punctuation. Punctuation includes any conventional features of written presentation
other than spelling and general layout: the standard punctuation marks (. , ; : ? ! -- ( ) “ ‘ ), and also word-spaces, capital letters, apostrophes, paragraph breaks
and bullet points. One of the roles of punctuation is to indicate syntactic
structure, i.e. how the words cluster to form phrases and sentences and how
these clusters function (e.g. as questions or statements).
quantifier. Quantifiers are determiners or pronouns such as some, any, none, many.
The term quantifier, which comes from logic, is used by some grammarians to
refer to any determiner or pronoun that defines ‘quantity’. This usage is hard to
justify in purely grammatical terms.
question. One of the functions that a clause may have is to express a question (e.g.
Are you ready?). It is best to distinguish the functional classification from
interrogative, the sentence type that typically signals it. Thus the interrogative
Are you ready? need not be a question, but could be an exclamation or a
warning; and conversely, a question could be conveyed by other sentence types,
as in Tell me whether you're ready or I wonder if you're ready.
question word. See determiner and pronoun. Most questions words in English are
spelt with wh... (who, what, which, when, why, where, whoever, etc.), so they are
sometimes called ‘wh-words. (The exception is how, but even this contains w
and h.)
refer. A word or phrase is said to ‘refer to’ the things, events, places and so on that it
picks out. For instance, in the sentence The birds woke me this morning,
 me refers to the person speaking or writing.
 this morning refers to some time in the morning of the same day.
 the birds refers to the birds in question.
 the whole sentence refers to the incident described.
reflexive pronoun. See pronoun.
register. The language that we use varies with the situation in which we use it:
formal or casual, technical or lay, written or spoken, and so on. This kind of
variation is described in terms of different ‘registers’ (in contrast with
differences that vary with the user, which are described in terms of ‘dialects’).
regular. When words are described as ‘regular’ or ‘irregular’, this normally refers
specifically to their inflectional morphology. For example, English regular
verbs form their past tense by adding –ed, as in walk – walked, but irregular
verbs use different patterns such as take – took, buy – bought or sing – sang.
This rather specialised use of the terms regular and irregular should not obscure
the fact that virtually any rule may have exceptions, including the rules of
syntax; for example, although ‘regular’ degree modifiers such as sufficiently
stand before the word they modify (as in sufficiently big), the ‘irregular’ word
enough stands after it (as in big enough).
relative clause. A relative clause is a subordinate clause that modifies a noun (or
clause) by adding a statement about what it refers to. For instance:
the cake that he made yesterday answers the question: ‘which cake? by adding
the statement that he made it yesterday.
He lives in London, which is the capital of the UK. answers the question: ‘what
about London?’ by adding that it is the capital of the UK'.
Relative clauses are similar in function to modifying adjectives, and can often
be used to expand a simple adjective:
the big cake (adjective) = the cake which is big (relative clause)
Relative clauses in English are marked in a variety of ways. For example, in
order to modify the noun book by adding the idea that Mary should write the
book, you could:
 attach the relative clause Mary should write straight after book, without any
separator: the book Mary should write
• add that to mark the start of the relative clause: the book that Mary should
write
• add the relative pronoun which: the book which Mary should write
• use to and an infinitive, with ellipsis of Mary: the book to write
• use for to allow Mary to be added to the infinitive: the book for Mary to write
• use a passive infinitive: the book to be written by Mary.
Other possibilities are available if the book is the subject of the relative clause,
as when the modifying idea is that the book is lying on the table. These include
most of the options above, plus:
• use a present participle: the book lying on the table.
Relative clauses may have different relations to the modified noun:
 restrictive relative clause: the relative clause restricts the meaning of the
noun: The book which is on the table is mine. (Answers: Which book?)
 non-restrictive relative clause: the relative clause tells us something new
about whoever or whatever the noun refers to: The book, which is on the table, is
mine. (Answers: What about the book?)
 free relative clause: there is no separate noun or clause, because the noun is
already built into the special pronoun (e.g. what means ‘the thing which’): What
I bought cost five pounds. (Means ‘the thing which I bought cost ...’)
relative pronoun. See pronoun, wh-word, determiner.
reported speech. See direct speech.
restrictive relative clause. See relative clause.
root. A word’s etymological origin is often called its ‘root’; for example, the Greek
word σχολή (skhole) meaning ‘leisure’ is the root of our word school.
root word. See base.
sentence. All the words in a sentence are held together by purely grammatical links
of subordination or coordination, rather than merely by links of coherence.
For example, take this string of words:
when I woke up | the sun was shining | and the birds were singing | I felt great
There are four clauses (separated by |) but how many sentences?
 The first two clauses are held together by subordination (the subordinate
clause when I woke up is a fronted adverbial belonging to the main clause the
sun was shining), so they must be part of the same sentence.
 The second and third clauses are held together by coordination (... and ...), so
they too must be part of the same sentence.
But although the fourth clause is clearly linked to the earlier clauses by
coherence (cause - effect), it has no grammatical link back to these clauses so it
must be part of a different sentence.
If punctuation follows grammatical structure in a simple way, the punctuation
should therefore be:
When I woke up, the sun was shining and the birds were singing. I felt great.
But punctuation is a resource that experienced writers can exploit for deliberate
effects, so 'sentence punctuation' can sometimes deliberately disagree with
grammatical sentences - for example, a writer might choose to put a full stop
after shining to split the one grammatical sentence into two punctuation
sentences.
For the classification of sentences as simple, compound or complex, see
complex sentence.
sentence type. Sentences are sometimes classified according to the kind of function
their grammatical structure allows them to have, as commands, statements,
questions and so on; so grammarians distinguish the following grammatical
structures, which are sometims called ‘sentence types’:
 declarative, e.g. You’re being very quiet.
 interrogative, with at least two sub-types:
o yes/no interrogative, e.g. Are you being very quiet?
o wh-interrogative, e.g. Why are you being so quiet?
 imperative, e.g. Be very quiet! Let’s be very quiet!
 exclamative, e.g. How quiet you’re being!
However, this classification really applies separately to each main clause,
because different kinds of main clause can combine in the same sentence:
This book is mine, but whose is this one? (declarative + interrrogative)
It's cold outside, so do come in! (declarative + imperative)
Consequently, it would be better to call declaratives, interrogatives and so on
distinct ‘clause types’ rather than sentence-types.
simple sentence. See complex sentence.
single-clause sentence. See complex sentence.
singular. See plural.
speech marks. See direct speech.
split infinitive. English infinitives often combine with the expletive to, as in He
seems to like it. If to is separated from the infinitive, as in He seems to really like
it, the infinitive is described as ‘split’. Prescriptive grammar condemns this
because our to + infinitive is generally translated in languages like Latin or
French as a single word, which (of course) cannot be split. English is different.
Standard English. Standard English is the variety of English used in public
communication, particularly in writing. It is the form taught in schools and used
by educated speakers. It is not limited to a particular region of the UK and can be
spoken with any accent.
There are differences in vocabulary and grammar between standard English
and non-standard English. For example:
We were given those bottles. (standard English)
We was given them bottles. (non-standard English)
These examples show standard and non-standard patterns of agreement. A
different non-standard grammatical pattern is the double negative.
Note that standard British English is not the only standard variety of English;
other English-speaking countries, such as the United States and Australia, have
their own standard forms.
statement. One of the functions that a clause may have is to make a statement (e.g.
I'm ready.). It is best to distinguish the functional classification from
declarative, the sentence type that typically signals it. Thus the declarative
You're ready need not be a statement but could be a question or request for
confirmation.
stem. See base.
stranded preposition. See preposition.
subject. In John kicked the ball, the subject is John, and the object is the ball. The
most obvious difference between them is in the word order: subject before the
verb, object after it (S V O), but there are other differences too:
 The subject is normally the person or thing about which something is said.
In some sense, John kicked the ball would normally be 'about' John (What did
John do?) rather than the ball (What happened to the ball).
 A verb’s subject normally names the ‘do-er’ or ‘be-er’ (the kicker in John
kicked the ball or the ‘be-er’ in John is happy).
 It is the position of the subject, before or after the finite verb, that
distinguishes declaratives from interrogatives (e.g. declarative John is happy.
and interrogative Is John happy?)
 The subject of a passive verb corresponds to the object of its active
equivalent, while the active verb's subject corresponds to a by-phrase with the
passive. (passive: The ball was kicked by John. active: John kicked the ball.)
 The number of the subject sometimes influences the inflection of the verb
by agreement. (He is happy. but: They are happy.)
subject complement. In Mary seems nice, and Mary seems a nice person, ‘nice’ and
‘a nice person’ is a description of the subject Mary, whereas in Mary met a nice
person, this phrase is the object, and refers to a separate person from Mary. In
the first example, a nice person is called a ‘subject complement’ because it
‘completes’ the verb (after seems we expect more words such as this phrase),
and describes the subject. (See complement and contrast object complements
such as angry in He made her angry, which describe the object.)
Just like an object, a subject complement may be a noun, pronoun or noun
phrase, but it may also be:
 an adjective (Mary seems nice).
 a preposition phrase (Mary is in a good mood).
So a good test to distinguish subject complements from objects is the possibility
of replacement by an adjective; for instance, a nice person can be replaced by
nice in Mary seems ..., but not in Mary met .....
Verbs that allow a subject complement are called linking verbs, and include
be, get, become and sound. Some grammarians also include auxiliary verbs in
this list, so that in She was singing, the participle singing is a subject
complement, just as it is in She kept singing.
subjective case. A synonym for nominative case.
subjunctive. In some languages, verbs have a special inflection called the
‘subjunctive’ which is used to show some kind of subordination of the verb, in
contrast with the usual indicative verbs used in ordinary main clauses. For
example, French subjunctive verbs are used after certain conjunctions and in
certain kinds of subordinate clauses; and German subjunctives are used even in
main clauses to show that the meaning is reported.
Modern English has no subjunctive in this sense, though earlier stages of
English did have one and traces of the old forms survive in fixed phrases,
especially in some formal varieties:
 the present tense has the verb’s base form even when the subject is
singular:
The school requires that every pupil give (not: *gives) a presentation.
The proposal is that you be (not: *are) the chairman.
• the verb be in the past tense is were (not was) even when the subject is
singular:
If I were you, ...
subordinate clause. A subordinate clause is subordinate to some word or phrase
outside itself, which it may modify in some way including the following:
 as a relative clause: The man who came to supper knew my father.
 as an adverbial: He fell down when he went out.
 as a verb’s subject: Eating toffee apples is fun.
 as a verb's object: He said that he was ready.
How a subordinate clause fits into the larger sentence is normally marked
grammatically, either by a special introductory word such as a conjunction, or
by special inflections of the verb (such as eating). However:
 some subordinate clauses have no marking.
I know you're angry.
The book I bought is on the table.
 clauses that are quoted as direct speech are not subordinate clauses.
He shouted, 'Go away!'
subordinate, subordination. Most words in a sentence are linked in the unequal
relation of subordination (also known as ‘dependency’), rather than the equality
of co-ordination. For example,
 a modifier is subordinate to the word it modifies: small boy (small is
subordinate to boy)
 a verb’s subject, object and subject/object complement are all subordinate
to the verb: He made her happy. (he, her, happy are all subordinate to made, the
head of the clause)
In each case,
 The subordinate word combines with the other word to make a phrase, in
which the other word is the head:
The small boy made her happy.(The small boy is a phrase in which the head is
boy, modified by the and small.)
The small boy made her happy. (The small boy made her happy is a phrase, and
more precisely, a clause, whose head is made.)
 The subordinate word makes the head word’s meaning more precise:
small boy is more precise than boy (because a small boy is a particular kind of
boy).
he made her happy is more precise than just made (or even than someone made
someone something)
subordinate clause. See main clause.
suffix. See affix.
superlative. See comparative.
synonym, synonymous. Two words are synonyms if their meanings are the same or
very similar; e.g. try – attempt; wet - damp.
syntax. Syntax is the part of grammar which is concerned with sentence structure,
i.e. with how words are used together in a sentence. It includes word order,
phrases, subordination and agreement.
tag question. One of the characteristics of casual speech is the use of small elliptical
questions at the end of a clause: That boy can swim well, can’t he? You missed
the deadline, didn’t you? The tag question turns the preceding clause into a
question with the minimum of words by:
 turning the subject into a personal pronoun and putting it after the verb:
that boy can – can he
 repeating the auxiliary verb, or supplying do if there isn’t one: can – can’t;
missed – didn’t
 adding –n’t if required by the meaning and context:
o confirming the statement, signalled by reversed polarity – i.e.
negative after affirmative or vice versa: It’s raining, isn’t it? It
isn’t raining, is it?
o challenging the statement, signalled by constant polarity – i.e.
positive + positive or negative + negative: It’s raining, is it? It
isn’t raining, isn’t it?
Variable tag questions are a peculiarity of English. In languages such as French
the tag question has a constant form (e.g. in French: n’est-ce pas).
tense. A tense is an inflection that most often indicates time. English verbs have two
basic tenses
• present, e.g. is, waits, run
• past, e.g. was, waited, ran
but unlike languages such as French, English has no future inflection.
The present-past contrast plays an important part in English grammar, such as
in backshift. This is an example of deictic meaning because it builds on ‘now’
(the time of uttering, with past tense referring to events before now).
The English tense system combines with the two contrasts of aspect:
• perfect/non-perfect, e.g. has waited, had waited
• progressive/non-progressive, e.g. is waiting, was waiting
These contrasts combine to define eight patterns:
 present simple: waits
 present perfect: has waited
 present progressive: is waiting
 present perfect progressive: has been waiting
 past simple: waited
 past perfect: had waited
 past progressive: was waiting
 past perfect progressive: had been waiting
transitive verb. A transitive verb has, or may have, a direct object, in contrast with
intransitive verbs. (The term alludes to the ‘transition’ of activity from the
subject to the object, as in John kicked the ball where the kicking passes from
John to the ball.)
ungrammatical. See grammar. Ungrammatical sentences are signalled by *.
verb. E.g. take, arrive, imagine, rain, be. The best way to recognise a verb is by its
ability to have a tense and a subject. For instance, arrive must be a verb because
we can contrast present-tense arrives or arrive with past-tense arrived, and we
can use both of these with a subject such as she, as in She arrived. In contrast,
arrival cannot be a verb because it doesn’t have a tense and can’t be used with a
subject, so we can’t say *She arrivals/arrivalled.
Verbs are sometimes called ‘doing words’ because they often name an action
that someone does. This may be a useful way to remember what verbs are, but an
accurate definition should be broader, including also events (where things simply
happen, without anyone ‘doing’ them, e.g. It rained all day) or states (where
nothing changes, e.g. We are British). Moreover, since actions, events, and states
can also be referred to by nouns, e.g. His success made us all happy, a definition
based on meaning is ultimately unhelpful.
verbal noun. See participle.
verb phrase. See phrase.
vocabulary. See lexicon.
voice. See active verb.
wh-cleft. See cleft sentence.
wh-question. See sentence type.
wh-word. See question word and relative pronoun.
word. A word is a unit of grammar that can be selected and moved around relatively
independently of other such units. In punctuation, words are normally separated
by word spaces, but this is omitted in abbreviations such as I’m.
But there are challenging complexities: for example, there is great uncertainty
about the boundary between compound words and two-word combinations of a
modifier plus the head; for example, is brick-red one word or two? And should
we write land owner or land-owner (or even landowner)?
Another complication is the difference between ‘word forms’ and ‘lexemes’;
for example, book and books are two different word forms that belong to the
same lexeme.
Another important distinction contrasts word types with word tokens. Types
are stored items in the language, whereas tokens are examples of these types
used on particular occasions or in particular situations. For example, The cat sat
on the mat contains six tokens of five types, including two distinct tokens of the
type the.
word class. Words can be classified as nouns, verbs and so on. Like any other
classification, these classes take account of a wide range of characteristics, and
not just one which might be used as a simple criterion for recognising members.
In the case of words, these characteristics include:
 meaning: for example, a noun's meaning may be a concrete object or a
person, but this is normally not possible for a verb; in contrast, verbs tend to be
used for events, actions and states.
 syntax: nouns and verbs combine with different kinds of words; for
example, we use adjectives to modify nouns, but adverbs to modify verbs
(recent accident, but happened recently).
 morphology: nouns and verbs have different inflections: nouns inflect for
number, while verbs inflect for tense.
Two important principles follow from this idea that classes recognise many
different criteria:
 When you're deciding how to classify a word, its meaning is often relevant
and helpful, but it's never the only thing to pay attention to: you always need to
pay attention to its grammar - its syntax and morphology.
 Nor is it enough to look at how the word is being used (syntactically) in the
present sentence. Instead, you have to consider its full range of possible uses.
For instance, in big grammar book, the words big and grammar are both being
used in the same way (to modify the noun book), but they actually belong to
different word classes because they have different ranges of possible uses: big is
an adjective because we can also say: This book is very big, but not: *I like big;
but grammar is a noun because we can also say: I like grammar, but not: *This
book is very grammar.
Using these complex criteria, grammarians generally distinguish the
following main word classes for English:
 noun: book, arrival
 verb: arrive, do
 adjective: big, punctual
 adverb: quickly, soon
 preposition: of, behind
 pronoun: me, who
 determiner: the, which
 conjunction: and, if
Each of these main word classes may be further subdivided; for example, verbs
can be classified as auxiliary verbs, among which we recognise the modal
verbs.
Word classes were traditionally called parts of speech, but this rather
opaque term is best avoided.
word family. The words in a word family are normally derived from a single root
word; for example friend acts as the root word which holds together friendly,
unfriendly, friendship and befriend.
word form. See word.
word order. One of the important parts of syntax is the order of words or phrases.
The order found in sentences is partially free, and partially covered by rules. For
instance, English has relatively strict rules for the positions of a verb and its
subject and object, and for the modifiers of a noun (adjectives before the head,
preposition phrases after it); so He reads big books about butterflies allows very
little freedom in the order of words. However some freedom is possible even in
English thanks to operations such as fronting, which, given a suitable context,
would allow Big books about butterflies he reads. Adverbials also tend to be free
to move, as in Ivan does it frequently – Ivan frequently does it – Frequently Ivan
does it.
word token, word type. See Word.
yes-no question. See sentence type.